Archive for April, 2010

I had Yesterday (Sunday) off and found myself getting slightly toasted at the Ford County Ground whilst watching Essex in the Pro40 league – so I now look like a red Panda!

I have been looking for ways to improve the exposure of the blog – one way I’ve found is to link it through the power of Facebook. If you click on the link below, you should be able to follow is on there too!

I trust you all had a great weekend enjoying the sun?! Well, I did. I was only working at Essex Regiment Way on Friday, so I was VERY lucky to have Saturday and Sunday off work – so I had some friends over for dinner on Saturday and sat in the sun on Sunday. I shall make the most of it however, it was my last full weekend off until NOVEMBER!

Not sure if you knew, but I was taught this trade on the decks of a cruise ship – sailing all over North and Central America. Tomorrow (Tuesday), I am driving down the M3 to Southampton so see a few friends of mine who are based on the new ‘Celebrity Eclipse’ cruise ship. Now this is a monster, 112,000 tonnes and over 1,000ft long! I’ve not set foot on a ship since leaving ‘Celebrity Infinity’ back in September 2003, so I am VERY much looking forward to getting a guided tour. One of a lucky handful, as the ship doesn’t take her maiden voyage until the end of the month. It’s not what you know 😉

I had an amazing time photographing weddings from Thurs – Sun over the Holiday weekend, and the weather behaved – sort of.

Thursday took me to Braxted Park, and the weather was perfect – not too hot, and not too cold, with a little bit of sun poking through every now and again. Sam and Stuart where brilliant to work with, so animated in there approach and I was able to capture some stunning images for them which are available to view now on our recent weddings page on the site.

The Fennes on Friday, where the weather let me down a little bit. It started off ok, but during the civil ceremony, we could all hear the rain on the windows! However, Amanda still wanted to go outside to get a few shots on the bridge, and luckily, the rain held off for the 5-6 minutes that we were outside, but as soon as we went back inside to complete the shoot, the heavens opened! All was not lost as The Fennes offers such great locations inside to make sure I still got some amazing images of Amanda and Nick, as well as the groups.

Three Rivers on Saturday was possibly the best weather over the weekend for me – bright and sunny with no wind. Perfect. Mary and Lee where so pleased that we completed ALL the photography outside with the sun on their backs! I had photographed Marys brother’s wedding back in August at Leez Priory, so it was so nice to see the family again – they are such a nice group of people. One of whom is a Scottish football legend! Mary’s uncle, John ‘Dixie’ Deans, played for Celtic in the early 70’s scoring a prolific 132 goals in 184 appearances. The six goals he struck in a defeat of Partick Thistle is a post-war record for goals scored in a single game. He is also the only player in Scottish football history to twice score a hat-trick in a major cup final, achieving the feat in the 1971/72 Scottish Cup final and the 1974/75 Scottish League Cup final. A true football master, and truly nice guy!!

Easter Sunday took me to Friern Manor. Started out quite gray and overcast with rain in the air, but thankfully it cleared up rather nicely for Michelle and Russell. They both had a surprise in-store for their guests. They had been having dance lessons 12 weeks prior to the wedding for the first dance. It was amazing, as tight as professionals, and executed to perfection! The smiles on their faces told one of relief that the secret was out, but also how much fun they were having!